TE IR A TA NG ATA
IS SUE
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WOMEN , E QUIT Y AND A CTIV ISM IN A OTE AR OA
Cover artwork by Ayla Corner
ISSN 2744-788X (Print)
ISSN 2744-7898 (Online)
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Maia Ratana (Te Arawa, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Raukawa) is a lecturer at the Unitec School of Architecture and a researcher at Ngā Wai a te Tūī.
She is particularly interested in how housing impacts rangatahi Māori, pedagogies for supporting Māori students in tertiary education, and innovative housing practises.
Maia Ratana
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, UNITEC INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
[email protected] linkedin.com/in/maia-ratana- 872a586b/
THE UPPER-CLASS MĀORI
History
The ways in which Māori have been marginalised and excluded within tertiary education is unknown by most. In brief, Sir Apirana Ngata became the first Māori to receive a degree from an Aotearoa New Zealand university in 1893 (Sorrenson, 1996). He had been part of a cohort of Māori students from Te Aute College who under the leadership of John Thornton, passed their matriculation exams and went onto higher education. However, this development was not welcomed by Pākehā education officials who then sought to restrict curriculum content for Māori arguing that “the objective of Māori education was to fit pupils for life among Māori” (Walker, 2016). In other words, Māori needed to be educated enough to work for Pākehā, not compete with them economically (Morrison, 1999). Following the successful transition of this small group of Māori to university, Thornton was fired as principal of Te Aute College and new national curriculum guidelines ensured Māori students were taught only what was necessary to become labourers or housewives. These restrictions caused a fifty-year hiatus in Māori entering Aotearoa New Zealand universities until the late 1940s when Māori were allowed to apply to teachers’
college. This strong, new collective of Māori scholars grew and, along with the likes of Ngata, paved the way for Māori in tertiary education.
Contemporary views
Despite the time that has passed and some growth in Māori students and teaching staff in higher education, the lack of Māori faces and spaces continues to be fuelled by systemic racism and a disregard for Māori within our institutes, universities, and government. In a recent interview, Jacinda Ardern was asked what the Labour Government had done for Māori during her term as
Prime Minister. Her answer was that Labour had delivered a lot for Māori communities, “In fact, when you look at unemployment, we’ve got the lowest rates of unemployment under this government than we’ve had in a decade, we’ve seen more young Māori in apprenticeships. We know there is more work to do but we have made good progress” (RNZ, 2020). It is evident from these words how Jacinda Ardern, and no doubt much of Aotearoa New Zealand’s population, views Māori achievement in terms of jobs, trade training and apprenticeships. Her words allude to long standing ideas about what Māori success looks like; that is, success for Māori is often not imagined in terms of higher education or the professional realm. Although trade training is valuable for many, Māori, like other people in Aotearoa New Zealand, are diverse, and the assumption that Māori are primarily interested in trade or apprenticeship training conforms to old ideas about the kinds of talents, abilities, and interests of Māori. Such a view undermines the so-called ‘progress’ that has been made in our education system, and it continues to communicate to Māori, and the wider population, that as long as Māori have a job, the box has been ticked. Māori have put up with this type of stereotyping for generations. Not only from our most senior leaders, but within the education, health, and justice systems, all of whom have impacted Māori capability and hindered Māori with a lack of self-esteem, courage, and ambition.
Personal reflections – identity disjuncture’s
For much of my time in higher education, I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy and not understanding why I found university study so hard despite having the pre-requisites to succeed. At eighteen I left home in Rotorua, moved into a hall of residence at the University of Auckland and began a degree in classical music. While I was at music school, I was described as an
‘upper-class Māori’ by a Māori friend who I lived with. In fairness, being a classical violinist made me like no other Māori he had ever met but, while I laughed it off at the time, it is something I have never forgotten. It reminded me of another time when I was a junior at high school. I was one of two Māori students in the accelerate class, and while being Māori didn’t make you a minority in the wider school population (Rotorua Girls High was around 50% Māori with high rates of Māori success), I was definitely a minority in the classroom. I remember sitting with some friends, all of whom were Pākehā, and some Māori girls walked past laughing and swearing. One of my friends made a derogatory comment about the girls and then looked over at me and said, ‘oh not you though, you’re different’. It is my earliest memory of feeling that awkward, painful blow to the guts that is racism. I was left speechless and uncomfortable around those who I considered to be my closest friends. These, and other experiences during my education, left me feeling confused by the way I had been put in the ‘other’ category. Not only because it meant I was different, but because I felt pressured to succeed in the dominantly Pākehā world
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I found myself in. Not being a Te Reo Māori speaker also had me questioning my integrity and authenticity as a Māori voice and as such I was left torn and unsure of where I fit in; not Māori enough to be Māori, but not Pākehā enough to be Pākehā either. I began to question whether my intelligence was based on my academic credentials or the fact that I am Māori and because the expectation for Māori to succeed academically is low, my intellect made me different to the ‘norm’ in both Māori and Pākehā contexts. Tertiary education should have ensured my skill set was fostered, instead I continued to second guess my talents and abilities because of a lack of role modelling and sense of belonging. Subsequently, I spent years in and out of university finishing various qualifications and relied heavily on the few Māori staff and students who supported me throughout my studies.
Conclusion
Whilst Aotearoa New Zealand has come a long way in its offerings for Māori in education, in many ways the colonial government succeeded in their intention to create a manual workforce. Māori are still encouraged into the trades and while the numbers of tertiary students are growing, less than 5% of academics in tertiary education are Māori (RNZ, 2018). Many Māori academics have argued that tertiary providers must start to ‘walk the talk’ because despite all tertiary institutes now having strategies for Māori success, this is still not evident in the number of Māori staff being hired and as such is causing many of them to be overworked and stressed under the pressure to support the growing number of Māori students, as well as non-Māori who want to learn.
I feel I am now part of the fight for Māori leadership, Māori content, and Māori participation within our tertiary education sector. My master’s thesis gave me an opportunity to better understand my struggle and to realise that higher education was never intended for me. Ensuring safe spaces for Māori staff and students in tertiary education is crucial because despite those who have and continue to pioneer a new way forward for Māori, we continue to suffer from generations of oppression in a dominantly colonial system.
References
Hurihanganui, T A. (2018, 12 September). Māori academics ‘isolated’ and lacking in numbers. RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/366304/
maori-academics-isolated-and-lacking-in-numbers.
RNZ. (2020, January 24). PM Jacinda Ardern speaks at Rātana Pā. RNZ. https://
www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/408059/pm-jacinda-ardern-speaks- at- ratana-pa.
Sorrenson, M. P. K. (1996). Ngata, Apirana Turupa, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara – The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Retrieved August 5, 2021. https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3n5/ngata-apirana-turupa.
Walker, R. (2016). In J. Hutchings & J.L. Morgan (Eds.), Decolonisation in Aotearoa: Education, research and practise (pp. 19-38). Wellington: NZCER.
